Joe Torre: ‘An improper call was made’

MLB acknowledged today that umpire’s missed the call — even with the use of instant replay — on a ball hit by Oakland’s Adam Rosales that was ruled a double instead of a home run in Oakland’s 4-3 loss to Cleveland.

Here is what Joe Torre, the MLB executive VP for Baseball Operations, said:

“By rule, the decision to reverse a call by use of instant replay is at the sole discretion of the crew chief. In the opinion of Angel Hernandez, who was last night’s crew chief, there was not clear and convincing evidence to overturn the decision on the field. It was a judgment call, and as such, it stands as final.

“Home and away broadcast feeds are available for all uses of instant replay, and they were available to the crew last night. Given what we saw, we recognize that an improper call was made. Perfection is an impossible standard in any endeavor, but our goal is always to get the calls right. Earlier this morning, we began the process of speaking with the crew to thoroughly review all the circumstances surrounding last night’s decision.”

Here’s the story from Wednesday night in Cleveland from Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle:

CLEVELAND — In an extraordinary turn of events Wednesday night, the A’s thought they had tied the game with two outs in the ninth on a homer by Adam Rosales, and that a video replay would confirm that in short order.

Instead, despite the drive by Rosales clearly hitting a railing above the wall in left field on every replay available to the public, the umpire crew let the original call stand, and left Rosales at second base with a double. The A’s loaded the bases but Seth Smith grounded out to end the game, and Oakland fell 4-3, the team’s third consecutive loss at Cleveland.

“We all know it was the wrong call, the whole team,” Rosales said. “I appreciate Bob standing up for us. We all know how important every game is, we found that out last year.

“The replays showed it hit the railing,” Rosales said. “It would have been great to overturn it. With six eyes on it you would like to think they could get it right.”

Crew chief Angel Hernandez didn’t talk about the angles the umpires saw or whether they’d seen the ball strike the railing, saying only, “It was not evident on the TV we had that it was a home run. … I don’t know what kind of replay you had, but you can’t reverse a call unless there’s 100 percent evidence.”

Asked what Hernandez told him, Melvin said. ” ‘Inconclusive,’ to the only four people in the ballpark that could say that was inconclusive. Everybody else said it was a home run, including their announcers when I came in here later. I don’t get it. I don’t know what the explanation would be when everybody else in the ballpark knew it was a home run.

“I went in and looked at it later, clearly, it hit the railing. … I’m at a loss, I’m at a complete loss,” Melvin said.

Once a replay is requested, a manager is not allowed to argue, thus the ejection, and the game cannot be protested.

Melvin said, “I’ve already called the league. What they said is that once I ask them and they agree to look at it, it’s a judgment call. It was bad judgment.

“I can’t process this yet,” Melvin said. “It’s too soon to take a step back. I’ve never felt so helpless on a baseball field. So helpless and so wronged.

“From the first it looked to me like it hit the railing. You could tell the way it ricocheted. If it hits the pad first, it comes off there softly. Clearly there was a ricochet. There’s no doubt it hit something solid. … I don’t know how to handle something like this.”

Indians fans in the ballpark and on Twitter agreed it was a homer, and so did Indians players, although only off the record.